The internal combustion engine is used to convert the chemical energy of fuel into heat energy and then to convert this heat energy into usable mechanical energy. This is achieved by combining the appropriate amounts of air and fuel and burning the mixture in an enclosed cylinder at a controlled rate.
An average air/fuel ratio of good combustion for a petrol engine is about 15 parts of air to 1 part of fuel by weight. Diesel engines operate on a much wider air/fuel ratio, since air intake is not regulated on most diesel engines. The ratio may range from about 20:1 to about 100:1. This fact, plus the high compression of the diesel engine, makes it a fuel efficient engine.
But the amount of oxygen may become insufficient due to different kinds of fuel grades and the quality of oxygen entering into the engine. These are some factors that affect energy loss in an internal combustion engine.
The efficiency of a typical existing internal combustion engine illustrated in FIG. 1, in converting the potential energy in fuel to mechanical energy is only about 33%. Of the available fuel energy in an engine, about one-third is loss, due to the following factors.
The main factor is pyrolysis, which is caused by the mixing of undesirable gas compounds with hydrocarbons gas vapors vented out from the positive crankcase vent and the fuel tank vent connected to the air induction system 13, of an engine. The mixing of undesirable gas compounds upsets the quality of oxygen present during the combustion process.
The other factor is the loss hydrocarbon gas vapors vented to the atmosphere from the fuel tank 12, and the positive crankcase vent 14. These factors contribute to the loss of energy and the imbalance of the air to fuel ratio. The remaining one-third energy loss of hydrocarbons gas vapors is due to the emission of unburnt hydrocarbons through the exhaust system 16. These factors result in poor combustion.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an apparatus to produce negatively charged pre-oxidized hydrocarbon gas vapors to combine with the air and fuel mixture in the combustion chamber of an engine to improve the mass of air to mass of fuel ratio to enhance combustion in an internal combustion engine. In addition, the ambient air (N+O.sub.2) with the negatively charged pre-oxidized hydrocarbon gas vapors (HC+O.sub.-.sbsb.2) mix with the vaporized fuel in the combustion chambers contains more oxygen, creating greater expansion of the pistons during the combustion process. After combustion, the exhaust emission contains lower counts of hydrocarbons (&lt;HC), lower carbon monoxide (&lt;CO), lower oxides of nitrogen (&lt;NO.sub.2), lower carbon particulates (&lt;CP) with compound gas elements composed of carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2), nitrogen dioxide (NO.sub.2), sulfur dioxide (SO.sub.2) and extra oxygen (O.sub.2).
Here is the equation that shows what happens after combustion in an engine. EQU HC+N+O.sub.2 +(HC+O.sub.-.sbsb.2)-&gt;&lt;HC+&lt;CO+&lt;NO+&lt;CP+CO.sub.2 +H.sub.2 O+SO.sub.2 +O.sub.2
The first objective of this invention is to provide an apparatus to recover normally lost hydrocarbon gas vapor vented out into the atmosphere.
The second objective is to pass the recovered hydrocarbon gas vapors through a liquid mixture in the apparatus to form ethane and methane gases associated with oxygen.
The third objective is to disassociate hydrocarbon gas vapors in the liquid mixture through the use of an impeller, resulting in a venting from the liquid solution of the high octane vapors.
The fourth objective is to increase the oxygen ratio by adding negatively charged pre-oxidized hydrocarbon to the air flowing through the induction system of the engine. The fifth objective is to provide negatively charged pre-oxidized hydrocarbon gas vapors, produce high expansion of pistons, increase the engine power, save fuel consumption, reduce the emission of hydrocarbon gas vapors and achieve higher efficiency of engine performance.
The sixth objective is to improve the thermal efficiency of an engine by adding negatively charged oxygen into the combustion chamber of an engine, causing a lower amount of oxides of nitrogen.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent in light of the accompanying specification, claims, and drawings.